The Clallam County Parks, Fair & Facilities Department is considering changes to the Dungeness Recreation Area Master Plan which could alter the face of the park as visitors and residents know it — including the addition of more than 40 spaces for recreational vehicles.

The Clallam County Park and Recreation Advisory Board held a public meeting on March 6 discussing proposed changes to its Master Plan, which could potentially add a new RV camp to the park and move the walking trails by the bluffs closer to the existing camp sites.

The Dungeness Recreation Area is a 216-acre county regional park with 66 campsites and miles of pedestrian and equestrian trails. The Master Plan for the park began in 2006 and was completed in 2010 by the Board of County Commissioners.

“There are many reasons that the improvements are needed and are being proposed at this time,” the Parks Department’s Director Joel Winborn said. “User trends change, habitat changes, and a host of other issues impact the park now and certainly in the future.”

Winborn said officials expect Clallam County’s population to increase 17 percent over the next 14 years, and as a result local parks can expect more visitors. He said the Parks Department needs to consider the ever changing needs of the park’s visitors.

Other reasons for the proposed changes include: Baby Boomers trending towards more comfort as they enjoy parks during overnight stays, bluff erosion, utility and service costs that continue to rise, improving safety in the park for all users, an economic and recreational deficit for the loss of campgrounds on the peninsula and enhancing the park experience with more trails, restrooms and shelters.

In January of 2017, the Parks Board made the recommendation to move forward with updating the Master Plan in preparation for the 2018 grant cycle of the State’s Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO), an organization that manages grants from various federal and state sources.

Winborn said the parks department has used the grant funding from the RCO for many years and is planning on applying for the funds again.

“The County Parks department has utilized funding from the RCO for decades and have made many property acquisitions and park site improvements to roughly three-quarters of our parks,” he said. “We are hopeful that record continues.”

Winborn said the cost of the updated changes to the park is still being determined at this time.

“Given the possible cost, we do anticipate a phased approach is likely and would look at addressing problem areas and trail and day-use improvements first,” he said.

The Preferred Plan

The updated Master Plan, called the “Preferred Plan,” would add an estimated 42-45 new RV spots to the park in “Camp Loops C” where there is currently conifer forest.

While the plan allots for this many spots, Winborn said he believes there will not be as many as accounted for in the plan.

At the March 6 meeting, citizens provided comments regarding the proposed changes, and Winborn said many attendees did not support the idea of a new RV camp site.

“A majority of the comments made at last week’s public meeting did not favor the installation of a third camp loop,” Winborn said. “We are meeting this week with the Parks Board Master Plan committee to go over all of the comments in order to address concerns as best we can.”

The plan also realigns the trails along the bluffs to be closer to the two existing camp loops in the park.

“One of the biggest future impacts we will face is the continued erosion of the feeder bluff,” Winborn said. “Year after year, we lose a little more and are forced to move trails and fencing away from the bluffs edge.”

Winborn said addressing the potential future impacts of erosion is a prudent measure for the parks department to take.

The county plan would also expand the bicycle camping area with services, improve the group camping area and picnic area with better power, water and (potentially) other services, establish a new bike trail and could possibly add four cabins at the most to the park in a future phase, but Winborn said the cabins will not likely be a part of any initial improvements.

The Dungeness Recreation Area is adjacent to the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, operated by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and visitors must travel through the recreation area to reach the trailhead to the Dungeness Spit. The Service leases the property at the end of the road from the County for parking, restroom use and Spit access.

Possible improvement options also were presented at a public meeting held in November of 2017 and comments were gathered during that meeting, too.

A user survey was emailed to about 2,000 people from Nov. 9-Dec. 11 and also is being used to gather data from those that were unable to attend.

Winborn said the Parks Department mailed 80 letters of notice to residents living within a 1,000-foot radius of the park boundary; emailed 42 stakeholders (local/state/federal agencies, groups, etc.); posted flyers at the park prior to November meeting, ran notices for comments in the Peninsula Daily News and the Sequim Gazette,and advertised notifications on the parks department’s Facebook and website.

Residents concerned

Some residents who attended the public meetings said they felt the changes were not well communicated to the public and that the user survey did not provide a complete sample of the surrounding community.

Josh and Rachel Duerst, who live within walking distance of the park, said they were concerned for the environmental impacts of adding a new RV camp loop and were not aware these proposed changes were on the table.

“The impression that I got from going to the (March 6) meeting, they said the majority of the respondents to the survey only visited the park a few times a year,” Josh Duerst said. “It didn’t seem like it was a good sample size of the community.”

“They weren’t surveying daily recreational users like myself and other neighbors,” Rachel Duerst said.

She said if there were 45 more RV spaces seven days a week, multiplied by eight to 12 months of the year, could result in thousands and thousands of more people coming into the park — increasing the amount of foot traffic and waste.

“If they put an RV camp in there with power it would change the whole feel of the park,” Josh Duerst said.

“There’s trash around the neighborhoods already: soda cans and bottles to candy wrappers… and I don’t see anyone pick it up,” Rachel Duerst said. “But if you increase the amount of RVs it’s going to increase the amount of waste.”

“If it was a larger area I would be for it,” Josh Duerst said. “It’s such a small area, I don’t think it could support it all.”

Kay and Roger Slagle, who live on Lotzgesell Road, also voiced their concerns for the ecology of the park if a new RV camp loop was added.

The Slagles said they attended both the meeting last November and on March 6. The couple said they moved to their spot on Lotzgesell because of its close proximity to the park.

“We spend a lot of time in the (Dungeness Recreation) area,” Kay Slagle said. “This time of year we haven’t been out there as much but during better weather we’re out there almost seven days a week.”

The Slagles said they did receive a flier in the mail about the meeting, but they were the only neighbors to their knowledge who received a notification about the meeting.

“We got a flier in the mail and in retrospect, it appears we were among the only ones,” Kay Slagle said. “If there was one uniform concern from the people I spoke with it was ‘Well gee, I didn’t know this was happening.’”

Kay Slage said the area does need to be maintained but she is concerned with how deforesting more of that area will affect the wildlife and habitat.

“From my standpoint, I hate to see a big chunk of the forest, one of the better habitats of the whole area, taken out,” she said. “There is a lot of bird life and wildlife and a lot of interesting plant life and it’s not going to be replaced.”

“This is why we live here, we like to walk and we like that open space,” Kay Slagle said. “We’re out here because we really like being out in the county and being remote.”

Next steps

Winborn said the Parks Department has extended the comment period through March 23 so anyone who did not get a chance to weigh in would now have that opportunity.

It is posted on the Parks Department’s webpage at, www.clallam.net/parks/DRAMP, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ClallamCountyParks, and at site kiosks at both Dungeness and Salt Creek Recreation Areas.

Dungeness Wildlife Refuge manager Jennifer Brown Scott said she is glad the parks department has extended the comment period and hopes to learn more about the proposed changes.

“We are looking at the alternatives and we are still forming our thoughts,” Brown Scott said. “We’d like to understand more of the rationale of the (RV) camp loop, the reasons for creating it, and how they will deal with the consequences.”

Brown Scott said the Refuge has not formed an opinion about the proposed changes yet, but acknowledged that any change to the area’s structure will have some sort of impact.

“Any increase in use is going to increase the maintenance of the restrooms, trash removal, and potential for trespass during closed hours,” she said. “And that would be with any increase or use.”

From a refuge standpoint, Brown Scott said the less impact the better, but the goals of a recreation area different from a refuge.

Once the parks department has all of the comments, the parks board committee will assess and make a recommendation to the full parks board where they in turn will make a final recommendation to the Board of Commissioners.

“We are trying our best to get as much information out as we can,” Winborn said.

“I am hopeful that people will look down the road 10-20 years from now instead of the here and now,” he said. “If we address these future impacts now, we will all be miles ahead.”

One of the proposed changes to the Dungeness Recreation Area Master Plan includes realigning the bluff trails closer to the campgrounds due to continued erosion along the bluffs, according to the Clallam Count Parks Department. Sequim Gazette photo by Erin Hawkins